Habitat Quality, Social Dominance and Dawn Chorus Song Output in Black‐Capped Chickadees

Oort, Harry van; Otter, Ken A.; Fort, Kevin T.; Holschuh, Carmen I.

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01228.x

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This suggests that resources may be limited and males in low somatic condition may reduce parental behaviour to compensate. Further, reduced song output at dawn that is seen across habitats [22] is alleviated by supplemental feeding in the early spring [25], suggesting a link between song output and the condition of the birds during the breeding season.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Birds in young forest (low-quality habitat) have lower reproductive success [20], reduced territorial behaviour [21], and lower song output [22] than birds in mature forest (high-quality habitat). These condition-dependent behaviours appear to reflect low food access in poor-quality habitat, but have been measured primarily during the breeding season.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Habitat Quality Affects Early Physiology and Subsequent Neuromotor Development of Juvenile Black-Capped Chickadees

et al. 2013

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In songbirds, the ability to learn and render the species-specific song is influenced by the development of both the song nuclei in the brain and the syrinx (bird's vocal apparatus) early in the bird's life. In black-capped chickadees (Poecille atricapillus), habitat quality is known to affect song structure, with birds in high-quality habitat (mature forest) having a higher song consistency than birds in low-quality habitat (young forest). Although this difference is suspected to stem from differences in development, the developmental status of juvenile birds in either habitat remains unexplored. In this study, we used ptilochronology and feather corticosterone to compare the conditional state of juvenile chickadees in young and mature forest during two distinct periods of song learning - the sensory phase, which occurs prior to settlement, and the sensorimotor phase, which occurs post-settlement. A sample of juvenile males was captured and euthanized several weeks prior to their first breeding season to compare the development of song center nuclei and syrinx in both habitats. The corticosterone levels of natally-grown feathers were greater among birds that settled in mature than young forests - as these feathers were grown pre-settlement, they reflect differences in physiology during the sensory phase. This difference in conditional state is reflected by differences in syrinx and song center nuclei development later during the sensorimotor phase - birds in young forest have smaller syrinx, and moderately-larger RA, than birds in mature forest. Those differences could be responsible for the difference in consistency in song structure observed across habitats. The difference in physiological state across habitats, combined with potential compounding effect of differences in winter resources between habitats, could influence the difference in syrinx and neural development seen in juvenile males during the early spring, and influence the male's ability to learn and render their species-specific song.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat Quality Affects Early Physiology and Subsequent Neuromotor Development of Juvenile Black-Capped Chickadees

et al. 2013

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“…found these low-quality habitats negatively affect reproduction (Fort and Otter, 2004a), territoriality (Fort and Otter, 2004b), song output (van Oort et al, 2006), song consistency and perception (Grava et al, 2013a) and song structure (Grava et al, 2013b) in this species. Elevation and the presence of other chickadee species (for example, mountain chickadees) can also influence their distribution and habitat preference (Campbell et al, 1997).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 73%

Influence of landscape features on the microgeographic genetic structure of a resident songbird

et al. 2016

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Landscape features influence individual dispersal and as a result can affect both gene flow and genetic variation within and between populations. The landscape of British Columbia, Canada, is already highly heterogeneous because of natural ecological and geological transitions, but disturbance from human-mediated processes has further fragmented continuous habitat, particularly in the central plateau region. In this study, we evaluated the effects of landscape heterogeneity on the genetic structure of a common resident songbird, the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). Previous work revealed significant population structuring in British Columbia that could not be explained by physical barriers, so our aim was to assess the pattern of genetic structure at a microgeographic scale and determine the effect of different landscape features on genetic differentiation. A total of 399 individuals from 15 populations were genotyped for fourteen microsatellite loci revealing significant population structuring in this species. Individual-and population-based analyses revealed as many as nine genetic clusters with isolation in the north, the central plateau and the south. Moreover, a mixed modelling approach that accounted for non-independence of pairwise distance values revealed a significant effect of land cover and elevation resistance on genetic differentiation. These results suggest that barriers in the landscape influence dispersal which has led to the unexpectedly high levels of population isolation. Our study demonstrates the importance of incorporating landscape features when interpreting patterns of population differentiation. Despite taking a microgeographic approach, our results have opened up additional questions concerning the processes influencing dispersal and gene flow at the local scale.

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“…If more than one replicate of a particular stimulus was discernible, we averaged measurements within and between sequences to obtain a single value per unique stimulus (11 in total per transect). We obtained black-capped chick-a-dee calls from recordings made during previous studies on dawn vocalizations (van Oort et al 2006), and obtained mountain chick-a-dee calls from field recordings in a previous study (Grava et al 2013). We obtained blackcapped song stimuli from a previous study (Hansen et al 2005), and mountain songs from the Stokes field guide (Colver, Stokes, and Stokes 1999).…”

Section: Bioacousticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative effects of ambient noise and habitat openness on signal transfer for chickadee vocalizations in rural and urban green-spaces

2015

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Urbanization creates communication challenges for many species. Birds in particular rely on vocal communication for reproduction and territory defence, but in noisy or acoustically altered environments signals may be compromised. Both ambient noise and habitat openness affect signal transfer, but it is not clear how these two variables interact in urban green-spaces. Using black-capped and mountain chickadee vocalizations, we conducted transmission experiments to measure acoustic degradation and signal-to-noise ratios among a replicated set of transects spanning a range of both ambient noise levels and habitat openness. We used Akaike information criterion (AIC), an information theoretic approach, for selection and averaging of five alternative linear mixed models. We found ambient noise strongly and negatively correlated with relative signal amplitude and detection of signal features. In contrast, habitat openness appeared to have little effect on signal transfer. We also confirmed that urban green-spaces had significantly greater ambient noise levels than rural sites, which suggests that the dominant impact of anthropogenic noise on signal transfer should be an issue of concern to species conservation within these urban green-spaces.

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Habitat Quality, Social Dominance and Dawn Chorus Song Output in Black‐Capped Chickadees

Cited by 27 publications

References 37 publications

Habitat Quality Affects Early Physiology and Subsequent Neuromotor Development of Juvenile Black-Capped Chickadees

Habitat Quality Affects Early Physiology and Subsequent Neuromotor Development of Juvenile Black-Capped Chickadees

Influence of landscape features on the microgeographic genetic structure of a resident songbird

Relative effects of ambient noise and habitat openness on signal transfer for chickadee vocalizations in rural and urban green-spaces

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